The Wall Street Journal

January 20, 2014

Focusing on English this time, Ellen is featured in an article by Wall Street Journal reporter Elizabeth Bernstein about “performatives,” verbal missteps such as “don’t take this the wrong way” that can indicate a lack of candor and diplomacy.

BFM Radio

November 9, 2013

In October 2013, scores of New Yorkers converged on Brooklyn for a language-learning extravaganza called “Language Hopscotch,” where local immigrants from around the world taught a mindbending array of mini-courses on their native tongues. In this piece about the event for Malaysian radio station BFM, Ellen discusses her own four-year odyssey through the languages of New York and her long-term ambitions for this project.

SHRM: HR Careers

September 13, 2013

Ellen is featured in an article in HR Careers, a newsletter published by the Society for Human Resource Management. In it she discusses the workplace value of foreign-language skills, as well as the professional importance of grammar skills in English.

LawCrossing

September 11, 2013

This piece talks to attorneys and those who work with law firms about what it takes to be a successful international attorney. Ellen comments on the value of foreign-language skills to client relationships.

The Wall Street Journal

January 20, 2011

In this article, columnist Ralph Gardner, Jr., discusses some of the stories he has written whose popularity, as measured in Facebook “likes,” surprised or mystified him. One was his October 13, 2010, column on Ellen’s language project, “Words & Worlds of New York.” He writes, “Ms. Jovin was an impressive, serious person, but listening to language tapes certainly doesn’t have the inherent excitement, the dramatic arc of, say, climbing to the top of the George Washington Bridge or getting to be pool reporter for the Queen of England’s visit to Lower Manhattan in July—columns that received only a fraction of the ‘likes’ Ms. Jovin’s story garnered.”